Iraqi Shiites Hit Streets To Protest U.S.
Tens of thousands draped themselves in Iraqi flags and marched peacefully through the streets of two Shiite holy cities Monday to mark the fourth anniversary of Baghdad's fall. Demonstrators were flanked by two cordons of police as they called for U.S. forces to leave, shouting "Get out, get out occupier!"
Security was tight across Iraq, with a 24-hour ban on all vehicles in Baghdad starting from 5 a.m. Monday. The government quickly reinstated the day as a holiday, rescinding its weekend order that had decreed that April 9 no longer would be a day off.
The Najaf rally was ordered by Muqtada al-Sadr, the powerful Shiite cleric who a day earlier issued a statement ordering his militiamen to redouble their battle to oust American forces, and argued that Iraq's army and police should join him in defeating "your archenemy."
Al-Sadr remains in hiding, but today, again, he proved that he commands an enormous following among Iraqs largest religious group, reports Martin Seemungal for CBS News.
Demonstrators marched from Kufa to neighboring Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad. Those marching were overwhelmingly Shiite but Sunnis, who are believed to make up the heart of Iraq's insurgency, have also called for an American withdrawal.
Some at the rally waved small Iraqi flags; others hoisted up a giant flag 10 yards long. Leaflets fluttered through the breeze reading: "Yes, Yes to Iraq" and "Yes, Yes to Muqtada. Occupiers should leave Iraq."
"The enemy that is occupying our country is now targeting the dignity of the Iraqi people," said lawmaker Nassar al-Rubaie, head of al-Sadr's bloc in parliament, as he marched. "After four years of occupation, we have hundreds of thousands of people dead and wounded."
But elsewhere in Iraq, like in the southern city of Basra, people were out celebrating the anniversary but not in Baghdad. Officially, the anniversary of the liberation is a public holiday, but for security reasons, the Iraqi government ordered a 24-hour lockdown — the streets are empty and Baghdad is virtually a ghost town, Seemungal reports.
A senior official in al-Sadr's organization in Najaf, Salah al-Obaydi, called the rally a "call for liberation."
"We're hoping that by next year's anniversary, we will be an independent and liberated Iraq with full sovereignty," he said.
Al-Sadr did not attend the demonstration, and has not appeared in public for months. U.S. officials say he left Iraq for neighboring Iran after the Feb. 14 start of a Baghdad security crackdown, but his followers say he is in Iraq.
Iraqi soldiers in uniform joined the crowd, which was led by at least a dozen turbaned clerics — including one Sunni. Many marchers danced as they moved through the streets.
The demonstration ended without violence after about three hours, but two ambulances could be seen moving slowly with the marching crowd, poised to help if violence or stampedes broke out.
Col. Steven Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman and aide to the commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq, praised the peaceful nature of the demonstration, saying Iraqis "could not have done this four years ago."
"This is the right to assemble, the right to free speech — they didn't have that under the former regime," Boylan said. "This is progress, there's no two ways about it."
In other developments:
Monday's demonstration marks four years since U.S. Marines and the Army's 3rd Infantry Division swept into the Iraqi capital 20 days into the American invasion.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Monday that "mistakes were made" after Saddam Hussein's regime was ousted four years ago.
"The main mistake was a vacuum left in the fields of security and politics, and second mistake was how liberating forces became occupation forces," Zebari told Al-Arabiyah television.
Cars were banned from Najaf for 24 hours starting from 8 p.m. Sunday, said police spokesman Col. Ali Jiryo. Buses idled at all entrances of the city to transport arriving demonstrators or other visitors to the city center. Najaf residents would be allowed to drive, he said.
Security was tight across Iraq, with a 24-hour ban on all vehicles in Baghdad starting from 5 a.m. Monday. The government quickly reinstated Monday as a holiday, just a day after it had decreed that April 9 no longer would be a day off.
In a statement distributed in Najaf on Sunday, al-Sadr called on Iraqi forces to stop cooperating with America.
"You, the Iraqi army and police forces, don't walk alongside the occupiers, because they are your archenemy," the statement said.
Al-Sadr, who commands an enormous following among Iraq's majority Shiites and has close allies in the Shiite-dominated government, urged his followers not to attack fellow Iraqis but to turn all their efforts on American forces.
"God has ordered you to be patient in front of your enemy, and unify your efforts against them — not against the sons of Iraq," it said.
However, Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani, has recently voiced opposition to a pending piece of legislation that would bring some Sunni members of Saddam's government back into the political fold.
The legislation is seen as crucial to winning support for the central government from the Sunni bloc, many of whom fear being sidelined by the new Shiite-led authority.
Brookings Institute senior fellow Michael O'Hanlon told CBS' The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith that al-Sistani's rejection of the bill, is "the worst news in Iraq."
O'Hanlon says the cleric had been helpful to the cause of easing sectarian tension, until recently. "In the last year he's been so dispirited that he hasn't said much. Now he comes out and says something that works against us."
Al-Sadr had reportedly ordered his militia to disarm and stay off the streets during a Baghdad security crackdown that began Feb. 14, though he has nevertheless issued a series of sharp anti-American statements, demanding the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Sunday's statement was apparently issued in response to three days of clashes between his Mahdi Army militiamen and U.S.-backed Iraqi troops in Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad.
A U.S. soldier was killed there Sunday, Col. Michael Garrett, with the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division, told reporters in Diwaniyah a day later.
American troops continued operations in Diwaniyah on Monday, detaining four guards at the office of a Shiite political party and scouring two neighborhoods in the city's northern and eastern sections, police said. At least 24 suspects were detained and one civilian was killed, police said. U.S. officials had no immediate comment.